I was cleaning the bathroom yesterday (I know, miracles never cease, huh?) when my 2 and 1/2 year old daughter came in to use the potty. “Go ahead,” I told her. (Have I mentioned that I LOVE the fact that all 3 kids can use their potty on their own, ah sweet bliss—for 11 more weeks!) Well I turned from scrubbing the tub to see her standing beside the potty.
“I want to go this way!” she says (body standing facing the potty)
“You can’t” I told her and lifted her onto the seat.
“No” she screams, “I don’t want to go this way, I want to go like this,” she pouts and get down from the potty again turning to face the potty… like her older brother does.
Now she’s been going potty like a big girl for months and this has never come up. She also has a big sister and a Mommy at home, so it’s not like she’s never seen anyone sit on the potty before and all she is used to is watching boys stand and aim.
But as 2 yr olds often do, she dug her heels in and for whatever odd reason was declaring this her battle ground for the moment.
“Honey, you can’t go potty like that.” I tell her. “Your a girl and girls don’t pee that way. We can’t. We don’t have a ***** (not going to type the word b/c I don’t want to end up on those google search engines) Mommy and big sister sit on the potty and that’s what you have to do too.” Again I stick her up on the seat.
Again she jumps down with a big pouty lip and cries of frustration.
“Fine, then I am not going potty!” And out of the bathroom she storms.
As is often the case with the battles of a 2 yr old, the storm passed. I finished scrubbing the tub and got dinner on the table. She returned to the potty later and since I didn’t see any pee on the floor, I can only assume she chose to sit rather than stand. (thank goodness)
All I could do was laugh. Ah, the battles we fight…the discussions we have, the words that come out of our mouths… we could have never foreseen them before becoming moms… now, nothing surprises me.
